They were kids that I once knew
by Alice Nightray
Summary: Short story where Jamie no longer believes in Jack.


A/N: I am desperately in love with this film, and as with anything I love, I read the fanfiction surrounding it. I was reading this one called Snowflakes by Hatsu Yukiya which is an amazing series of drabbles and oneshots and you should all look it up, and in this one chapter where Jamie no longer believes this song called "Dead Hearts" by Stars comes up on my itunes on shuffle and the lyrics of the song combined with the story had me in tears for pretty much the rest of the day. So I thought I'd write all my angst out.

* * *

Jack should have known this day would have to come eventually, but he hadn't and he'd hoped it could have been put off just a little bit longer.

Winter had finally returned to Burgess and with the freezing winds blowing through the town came Jack Frost. He was in his element, joyfully bringing a thick layer of snow and ice to everything he came across.

Eagerly, he made his way down the familiar streets until he found what he had been looking for. Jamie, now a seventeen-year-old young man, was walking down the road back to his house, his coat wrapped tightly around his tall, lean frame and his collar turned up against the cold. Smiling, Jack perched on the branch of a nearby tree and, taking careful aim, threw a snowball directly at the back of Jamie's head.

Instantly, Jamie whipped around, trying to find who had attacked him in the apparently deserted street. Jack frowned. Sure, the branch he was on was a little bit higher than eye-level, but it shouldn't be that hard for Jamie to spot him. Frowning and brushing the snow out of his hair, Jamie turned again and continued walking.

Jack watched in astonishment.

"Jamie!" he called, flying down to land in front of his friend. As his feet touched the ground he smiled and stretched out his arms to receive a hug.

Jamie passed right through him as if he wasn't even there. Panic exploded through him.

"No, no, no, Jamie! Please, I'm right here. Come on, don't do this. Look at me, please" his voice cracked on the last word and he was suddenly aware that he was hyperventilating as he flew alongside his first and best friend.

Eventually, Jamie reached his house and went inside, quickly shutting the door against the cold which had suddenly appeared, and made his way to the kitchen where his mother was cooking dinner.

Jack stared forlornly through the window as Jamie sat down at the table with a hot drink his mother gave to him.

"Are you alright, sweetheart? Your nose looks a little red." She smiled at him

"Yeah, it got cold really quickly out there" Jamie replied, taking a sip of his drink.

"Maybe it was Jack Frost"

"Mum, don't. You're embarrassing me"

"Well, there was a time when you thought he was real. You and Sophie used to go everywhere in winter saying that Jack Frost started all the snowball fights and-"

"Yeah, when I was a kid and still believed stupid stuff like that. I'm a grown-up now, you can stop teasing me about it"

"Stupid stuff like what?" Sophie asked as she wandered into the kitchen, her hair a dishevelled mess as usual. Glancing at the window, she saw Jack perched on the window ledge, clutching his staff to his chest and looking like he was about to burst into tears.

"You know, when we used to play those dumb games about Jack Frost and the Easter Bunny and stuff like that. Kid's stuff" Jamie explained with a shrug. Sophie looked at the window in time to see Jack take off, not even bothering to leave a coating of frost on the window.

* * *

Bunnymund was fuming as he hopped out of the tunnel into North's workshop. In his paw was a cloth sack full of squirming elves. Jack had shown them some way to get into the Warren a couple of weeks ago, and ever since then he'd been overrun.

Finally, he'd managed to capture them all and was just bringing the last bunch of them back now. As soon as he'd given them back to North to deal with, he was going down to Burgess to deal with Jack.

Except Jack wasn't in Burgess. As Bunnymund strode through the cosy living room, he was surprised to find Jack curled up in a chair in front of the fireplace, staring vacantly into the roaring flame, tear tracks very visible on his pale cheeks.

Throwing the sack into a corner, and ignoring the elves that ran out, Bunnymund strode over to stand beside Jack.

"You alright, mate?"

"Yeah, fine" Jack's voice was small, quiet, and full of devastated sorrow.

"You don't look alright. Shouldn't you be raising up a blizzard somewhere, or playing with Jamie or-" he stopped as Jack shook his head at the mention of Jamie's name

"Oh" Bunnymund said as everything clicked, feeling his own heart break a little bit for the boy.

"Yeah" Jack replied, still fixing his gaze on the fire.

"Look, mate-" Bunnymund tried to say something comforting, but everything that came into his head just sounded insensitive, patronizing or inadequate.

_It was going to happen eventually_. No.

_Everyone grows up eventually_. No.

_You couldn't ask him to stick around forever_. No.

_I'm sure you'll get over it_. Good grief, no.

"It's fine" Jack said, "It was going to happen eventually. I just wish it could have lasted… just a little bit longer…" he broke off as he started to sob as if he would never stop. That was a blatant lie. He had thought that Jamie was going to be the one person who never stopped believing. Even if Sophie stopped, which was unlikely, he would manage somehow, but it had never occurred to him except in his deepest moments of anxiety that Jamie would ever stop believing in him.

Uncertainly, Bunnymund put his arms around the shaking boy, not used to giving comfort, and certainly not used to seeing Jack like this.

North came out of his office to see what all the noise was. As he opened his mouth to ask, Bunnymund shook his head to silence him and pointed to the globe. North looked over to see the brightest light had gone out.

As he got over the initial shock off seeing the void that had once shone so brightly, he made his way over to take Jack from Bunnymund's awkward hug and held him in his arms until he had cried himself out.

Moving so he could look Jack in the eye, he began to talk softly to the newest guardian.

"Jack, is never easy when children stop believing, especially with child as special as Jamie. But when children grow up, new children and new believers take their place. I am not saying that you should move on, or forget, but that you have believers, and you have guardians. You are not alone, Jack."

"Yeah, that's right!" Bunnymund cut in, feeling he should do something to make the kid feel better, "so why don't you and I go on down back to Burgess and we'll have a nice snowball fight or something to make ya feel better?"

North glared at him and his mildly insensitive attitude, but turned his focus back to Jack in shock when the winter spirit said, "No, I'm not going back to Burgess. Ever."

* * *

As Jamie walked from Claude and Caleb's house back to his own, he looked around at the surprisingly warm Burgess. Well, warm for this time of year. Usually, there was an almost endless amount of snow, and now there was barely a thin layer of frost. Which was strange, since the cold snap that had suddenly descended a couple of weeks ago usually heralded the beginning of a snowball fight season that would last for months.

Something else unusual that had happened in the last couple of weeks was the accusatory glare that Sophie was constantly giving him. It was almost as if she blamed him for the lack of snow this year. At the thought of snow, Jamie rubbed the back of his head where the snowball that had apparently come out of nowhere had hit him. He had the feeling there was something he should know, that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he shrugged it off as he reached his front door.

If it was something important he wouldn't have forgotten about it.

* * *

A/N: This is awful! Yeah, I'm really out of practice writing and I apologise for butchering the story and the OOC moments with Bunnymund, but I'm not sorry enough to not upload this. Still, I wrote this pretty quickly. If only it took me an hour to write 1500 words in my university essays instead of 6 like it usually does. Maybe I'll add another chapter where Jamie remembers, maybe I'll just leave this as a one-shot. Let me know what you think.


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